[SIGNED] The New Russian Poets 1955-1966: An Anthology Selected, Edited and Translated by George Reavey, Bilingual Edition by Reavey, George [Editor] - 1966

Reavey, George [Editor]. The New Russian Poets 1955-1966: An Anthology Selected, Edited and Translated by George Reavey, Bilingual Edition. New York: October House Inc., 1966. First Edition, First Printing.

Octavo (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches; 217 x 140 mm), xxvii, [1], 292 pages, in original brown boards, gilt titles to spine and upper board, marbled end papers, all edges gilt.

SIGNED by George Reavey on the title page. An anthology of Russian poetry in the post-Stalin years, with poems by Boris Pasternak, Alexander Tvardovsky, Leonid Martynov, Victor Bokov, Boris Slutsky, Yevgeny Vinokurov, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, Bulat Okudzhava, Victor Sosnora, Andrey Voznesensky, Novella Matveyeva, Leonid Gubanov, Ivan Kharabarov, Yury Galanskov, and Iosif Brodsky.

The poems appear in both Russian and English. Reavey (1907-1976), a poet and translator close to the Surrealists, says in a lengthy introduction: "The themes most of these poets have in common are the memories of war and suffering, Russian nature, a sense of compassion for the ordinary man, a renewal of the love theme, hatred of falsehood and corruption, a desire to find a new justification and ideal for the Revolution, and the need to insist on the integrity of the artist."

Some of these poets had run into trouble with Soviet censors and had suffered under Stalin. But it wasn't just Stalin; his successors also harassed a number of poets. For example, Nikita Khrushchev humiliated Voznesensky (1933-2010) at a Kremlin reception in 1962, suggested that he emigrate, and later called him a "pervert." Fifteen of his poems appear here. Brodsky (1940-1996) was tried in Leningrad in 1964 for "parasitism," banished to the Arctic, and expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987. This anthology features seven of his poems.

An interesting, wide-ranging anthology of post-Stalin poetry featuring poems in both Russian and English. SCARCE SIGNED.

CONDITION: Some rubbing to the spine and corners. A beautiful copy lacking the dust jacket. Near Fine.